By Tabitha Evans Moore | EDITOR & PUBLISHER

It’s Thursday afternoon and inmates at the Moore County Jail have just returned from a long day of mowing public spaces like Wiseman Park and the Courthouse. Despite having spent all day in the humidity and heat, they’re eager to eat dinner and then return outside to a small plot located just behind the jail filled with rows and rows of tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, and other veggies known as the Moore County Jail Community Garden.

Moore County Sheriff Department Chief Deputy Shane Taylor launched the program in 2018 with the help of members of the Lynchburg community and staff. The garden exists on land belonging to the Chaudhari family located right behind the jail.

Community Support

According to Taylor, the program is not publicly funded, and no local tax dollars are used to support it. Instead, it thrives thanks to community and staff support. This season, the Bedford-Moore Co-Op donated most of the plants and Jack Daniel’s own barrel man Kevin Sanders provided Biochar, a lightweight, black residue, made of carbon ashes that gets leftover after burning wood. It’s used to increase soil health. Sanders creates it locally by burning white oak whiskey barrels leftover after making Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey. Taylor says other community members like Tabitha Vaughn of Pray & Grow Nursery in Bakertown have also helped in year’s past.

“The sheriff’s department employees consistently support it,” Taylor says. “They are constantly using their own money to buy seeds, soil, and plant starters for the garden. They also teach the inmates how to cook with what they’ve grown or how to preserve vegetables.”

Planting second chances

Taylor says the community garden centers on teaching inmates about living a purpose-driven life, paying it forward, and second chances.

“All jails have programs aimed at rehabilitation, and reentry strategies,” Taylor says. “In Moore County, our jail is much smaller than most, which gives us the opportunity to be more hands-on with the inmates. Everyone on staff here truly wants them to succeed when they exit our facility.”

The jail trustees run the Moore County Jail Community Garden. These are low-risk or non-violent inmates who work both inside and outside the jail in exchange for privileges like working in the community garden. In fact, few local taxpayers realize that Moore County Jail trustees provide lawn care for all public green spaces in Lynchburg – saving Metro Moore tens of thousands of dollars. In exchange, inmates can receive reduced sentences in addition to getting a break from the monotony of serving time.

Taylor says that trustees work in the garden under supervision and undergo searches when they arrive back at the facility.

“These inmates go out into the community each day and pick up litter, work at the Metro Moore Convenience Center, and provide lawn care at county-owned properties. That’s their regular workday, if you will,” Taylor says. “The garden is their special project. I see them work all day, and then come into the jail, and head straight to the garden to check if they have veggies to harvest. The garden helps keep their minds off their time and gives them a sense of peace and wellbeing.”

Paying it forward

Not only are the veggies they grow used to feed the inmates currently housed at the Moore County Jail, but they also donate produce to places like the Moore County Senior Activity Center.

Taylor says staff often share ideas, tips, skills, knowledge of gardening with the inmates daily and then those inmates pass that information along to others.

“In the past couple years, I’ve watched long term inmates, who have worked in previous gardens, help other inmates with tasks, and share the things they have learned. They are learning lifelong skills while working, and the results are evident.”

In addition to reducing staff burdens, lowering operational costs, and keeping inmates occupied, Taylor says projects like the Moore County Jail Community Garden lower recidivism rates and give inmates who haven’t yet earned trustee status something to work towards.

Growing fresh starts

Taylor says one of the biggest “feel good” moments that has come from the garden are when he hears inmates talk about continuing their new-found gardening talents once they are released.

It’s developed into a fresh start for at least one success story – a former inmate with a particular love of gardening and cooking who went on to start his own food truck in a surrounding county once he got released.

“The program gives the inmate skills to succeed. It shows them that hard work truly pays off,” Taylor says. “It also helps condition the inmate and helps keep their fitness up so that when they are released, they can go into a physically demanding job and not struggle.”

It’s the kind of success story one might expect to happen in a small rural town with a strong sense of community. Staff at the Moore County Jail aren’t just managing prisoners. They are also deeply invested in never seeing inmates again unless it’s on the outside.

“Past inmates often return to the jail to visit and tell us how they are succeeding in life after being incarcerated. It’s an amazing feeling, and one of the main reasons I chose the field of law enforcement,” Taylor says. “We take an oath to serve and protect. Helping individuals who have made mistakes in life serve their debt to society is part of that oath. Many of them let us know how positively they were impacted by the way they were treated while in our care. It’s very rewarding.” •

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